Your Father Was A Swine!
by Catherine Morgan
Summary: James was a womanizer until the end. Catherine loved him anyway and had his daughter after his death. Severus will never forgive what James did to Lily. Harry is being abused, Sirius is innocent. If she fixes everything will his memory leave her be?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one

Your Father Was A Swine

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all familiar characters and linguistics belong to JK Rowling

James was a swine. He was my swine, but a swine never the less. No one will hear a word against the Potters. However I knew the truth. James and I continued our relationship right until the end. I had planned to tell him that he was going to be a father once again but when I got to Godric's Hollow Sirius looked at me and my bump and rolled his eyes.

"For goodness sake Cat!" he cried.

"Sirius, what happened? How did he find them? You didn't..." I started.

He looked at me darkly. No. Stupid question. Sirius would never betray Lily and James like that. However I had no idea what the real explanation was when we heard another footstep at the scene. We apparated out of the way and Sirius gave me another unhappy expression.

"Get out of here Cat. Dumbledore won't stand for you blackening James' name. Not now he's dead," he said.

"Sirius this takes two. He didn't force me but he was never the most faithful of husbands. We're having a girl," I said.

Sirius ran his hands down his face. He looked at me as though I was insane. However there was something else clearly pressing on his brain.

"I don't have time for this Cat. I have to get Harry and tell Dumbledore that I am not the secret keeper anymore. I haven't been for three months," he said.

I frowned. Sirius was innocent of betraying James but that meant he planned revenge. I decided to go to Albus Dumbledore with my news and seek his professional opinion. For some reason my pregnancy wasn't a popular one. Nobody seemed to give a shit how I felt about losing James, carrying a dead man's child but I knew I couldn't afford to breakdown. My daughter only had me in the world now and I wasn't going to let her down.

"You must tell no one. You will register the child under your own name, do not bring James into this," ordered my old headmaster.

"Sir with all due respect I have no wish to lie to my daughter. I do not lie to those I love. She is James Potter's daughter. Harry's half sister and there is nothing anyone can do about that, he isn't here to take the blame," I said.

"Exactly. You are. Can you imagine what the press will do to you? Think about it Catherine..." he began.

Another old classmate entered the headmaster's office. Severus Snape looked ill and distraught at the news. It was no secret that he loved Lily as much as I had loved James, but James loved me and Lily. He looked at me in confusion at first, he eventually put together what he had heard Dumbledore say and my condition.

"Who does that baby belong to?" he asked.

"Me," I replied.

"Hunter..." he began.

I turned away from him. I then decided to avoid his gaze as I left Hogwarts but he came after me and took my hand.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Dumbledore wants me to be a single mother. A one night stand, not a love triangle that has lasted since Hogwarts. James never stopped seeing me Severus. Lily just got pregnant first and now I am. So she got the husband and the family, while I got a few hours here and there," I replied.

His expression darkened.

"How could you? How could he? She did nothing to you..." began Snape.

"Severus apart from you I am the only person who believes she would have been better with you. She hated James, you know that. They only started being lovey-dovey when she got pregnant to make out to the world that it was what they wanted. I told James to get lost, I tried to stop it but I believed him when he said he loved me but lately I was not so sure. Now I will never know," I added.

I didn't think anyone knew that Snape loved Lily. I knew because I knew that James wanted Lily as another notch on the bedpost and I was able to link everyone together. I half hoped that he would rescue Lily from him but when she got the headgirl badge it didn't take long for them to be public for a while. It didn't affect me and James that much really, a wizard has to do what a wizard has to do. Despite Lily he still had time for me and I lost count how many times I snuck out of his quarters under his cloak so that we weren't found out or at least we thought we weren't.

Eventually Severus held out his hand to me and wished me good luck. I believed him. Only three people alive knew who my baby's father was and it remained so. Sirius I found must have lied to me as he was arrested not long after for murder and betrayal. They threw him in Azkaban and I was comfortable that my baby would be happy with a simple 'died in the war' excuse.

After Christmas I gave birth to my daughter. I wanted to call her Rose Potter but Hunter had to do. I followed the headmaster's instructions from that moment on and treated her like she was another child from a single mother. However she was a bright one the way she looked at my pictures from school with my friends and James. I had to tell her that he was just a friend at school from when I was young.

Her magical talent came through at the age of four. I said no to sweets and she was actually hungry and eventually when I gave into a piece of cake it turned into a full one. Rose was a girl who knew what she wanted and planned a way to get it be it muggle or magical means. I had a feeling she was going to be a Ravenclaw or a Slytherin when she went to Hogwarts.

I sent away my little girl to Hogwarts. She still looked cute in her robes and colour-less uniform. I made sure she had her own owl so that she could tell me all about it when she had the chance. I was about to leave the platform when I nearly tripped over someone's cane and glared at him. Bloody Malfoy.

"First year Hunter? The spitting image of you apart from the eyes, they look familiar," he said.

I cleared my throat.

"No one you know. Just me and her Lucius," I replied, trying to get back into muggle London.

"Can I offer you a lift?" he asked.

"No thank you, I was just about to have breakfast," I replied.

Again Lucius gestured to his ministry approved vehicle but I shook my head and came up with an excuse that would stop him following me.

"Sorry. I was going to go somewhere in the muggle world. I don't think it would be your cup of tea," I said, managing to escape.

Lucius' expression changed and I smiled to myself. I had been the other woman once before and I was damned if I was going to do it again. I would not have changed Rose being in my life but over the years I had become a mother who knew that there was a gap in my daughter's life where a father would be.

I was sure Rose would do just fine. I was not at all concerned by Severus being Head of Slytherin and when the Prophet wrote about the attacks at Hogwarts as she was not a muggle-born again I did not fear for her well-being. My daughter was a Ravenclaw and therefore I assumed quite safe from Severus' displeasure.

When Rose came home I knew something was wrong, eventually she opened up to me and started asking questions.

"Did you go to Hogwarts with Professor Snape?" she asked.

"Yes, he was a Slytherin," I replied.

"Well he favours his own house a lot, which is fine I guess but he's been really strict with me. I'm not failing or anything he just keeps giving me a hard time. Did he have a problem with you or dad?" asked Rose.

I rolled my eyes. I sent an owl to my old school mate who I had not seen in eleven years. After how we parted I had hoped to meet again on more pleasant terms rather than to tell him to back off my little girl.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all familiar characters and linguistics belong to JK Rowling

"I don't know why you insisted on this..." began Severus Snape.

"It stops. You stop picking on her now. She is not James, she is my daughter. He has nothing to do with her and she has nothing to do with how he was at school," I said, when we met.

He glared at me.

"She has everything to do with James. She is his daughter. I can see it in her eyes; don't get me wrong I can see a lot of you in her but those eyes. Potter is the opposite. He has her eyes. Lily's," he said.

"And do you treat him badly? I doubt that very much. Please Severus. I have brought my daughter up a normal, young witch, please, treat her like one. I have never done you wrong," I added.

"I know Catherine. However her father was a swine and I will never forget. They are both making it very difficult," he said.

I glared at him in disgust.

"I am sorry if bringing my daughter into the world upsets you Severus but that was my decision. I know I was used and treated like some second-best girl but I'd never take his mistakes out on Rose, not ever, she is a completely different person," I explained.

My knees could have gone weak the way he looked at me. It was a raised eyebrow mixed with a smirk and age had done him more justice than me. I hadn't fancied anyone since I lost James but suddenly I had this urge to get to know Severus Snape a little better.

"Why don't you come round for dinner? Then you'll see what my daughter is really like," I suggested.

"She will always be James' daughter. You can't hide it from her forever," said Severus.

"Please, what would Dumbledore say if my daughter went up to Harry and introduced herself as his half sister?" I asked.

It was cute how he tilted his head and finally rolled his eyes.

"You're right, Dumbledore refuses to have any more harm come to the boy after what happened to him with the muggles," added Severus.

I frowned slightly as he explained about Harry's muggle family abusing him. James would have been furious at anyone treating his son like that. The charm worked only on blood relatives and Rose had his father's blood.

"He doesn't have to live there," I began.

"Catherine don't even think of it!" ordered Severus.

I shook my head and presented my case to my old headmaster. He looked taken aback and rather amused at the same time over the idea that I would take in my love-rival's son, but what Dumbledore often forgot was that I loved James too.

"James would haunt me if I didn't come to you and suggest this. My daughter is a blood relative, he is James' son. I know he is Lily's as well but unlike his Aunt I would never punish him for that. The boy needs a happy home life after losing both of his parents, not what you put him into over a charm that I could be party to," I added.

The old man shook his head and corrected me.

"You are not the blood relative. Rose would have to invite him in and to her he is Ginny Weasley's dream boyfriend," he said.

"And her brother. I have brought my daughter up with love. She would invite him in," I added.

"And you are willing to tell the boy that his father cheated on his mother with you? His mother who died to protect him? You think the boy will want to stay with you?" asked Dumbledore.

"I have to try," I replied.

It was like James was guiding me from the grave. I could almost feel a hand on mine when I told Rose the truth about her father. She was twelve years old and I was putting my heart infront of her.

"It is time I told you the truth about your dad. He was my childhood sweetheart and it didn't stop there. I knew he was seeing someone else and he got her pregnant and he did the responsible thing and married her. I wouldn't have had it any other way but he kept calling and my feelings for him didn't change. I was around twenty weeks pregnant when I found out your father and his wife had been killed but their baby survived," I said.

Rose looked at me like I had told he the story in another language. Eventually she seemed to understand what I was telling her about her father.

"Are you saying James Potter was my father? Harry Potter is my half brother?" she asked.

I nodded.

"I found out that he hasn't been treated very well by his muggle relatives on his mother's side. I owe it to you and your father to bring him here and move the protective charm that is currently there but that charm won't work without your help Rose. You have to want him here and somehow I have to convince him to come here," I added.

Rose looked again confused and I sighed.

"How do I explain to a thirteen year old that his father cheated on his mother with me and I had you? Do you really think he'll want to live here?" I asked.

Rose encouraged me to try. So I made my way into the muggle world and did some research into social services. When the muggles found me at the door I introduced myself with a false identity.

"Good afternoon, I am from social services, I have had a few reports about your nephew Harry James Potter..." I began.

"Oh what is it? Don't be all day I have to collect my sister from the station!" snapped a large man.

"Mr. Dursely I have had some serious allegations put your way about your treatment of this boy, enough for me to personally take him away..." I started.

"By all means woman he is yours!" snapped the man.

Harry was grabbed by the neck and pushed towards me. I didn't take well to such rude behaviour and so I took out my wand and moved the man aside and forced my way into the house with Harry not too far behind me.

"Who are you and why are you doing this?" he asked.

"Now that we are all inside I can tell you. I didn't lie when I said I was here about the treatment you have received or that I can offer you a way out but I fear you would not wish to take it," I replied.

Harry led me to a small bedroom so that we could talk in private. I don't know why I did but I held out my hand to him.

"Hello Harry, my name is Catherine Hunter. I was a friend of your dad's. Actually in my youth we were a little more and I do not just mean before he married Lily. I know you don't want to hear it and looking back it was a silly and selfish thing to do. Harry on the night your parents; I was going to tell James I was pregnant. You have a half sister and therefore as a blood relative that means the charm can be moved to our house, however you must hate me after..." I started.

"I have a sister? Does she go to Hogwarts? Who is she?" he asked.

I smiled slightly.

"She is a Ravenclaw and her name is Rose. She is a year below you at school. Harry what we did, we did not do to hurt your mother. James wasn't a bad man he was trying to do the right thing in his own way. I leave the decision up to you. As you can imagine the few people who do know have discouraged me from doing this. However the moment I heard that you hadn't been happy here, I felt I owed it to your father at least," I replied.

To my surprise the boy packed his things and he must have noticed that I was surprised at his reaction.

"You understand magic, the only family I have left is a half sister I have only just found out about and you've been brave enough to disobey Dumbledore. What you and dad did, I can't pretend I agree with it but he isn't here to defend himself and you haven't put all the blame on him," said Harry.

"It takes two Harry; you'll learn that much when you are older. Well I can't say I expected you to want to leave so quickly, I'll help you with the bird or shall we let her meet us there?" I asked.

Harry nodded and I unlocked the birdcage and glared at the muggles as we left. I took one look at the cupboard under the stairs and shook my head. I took out my wand and threatened his Uncle into the cupboard and locked the door and then locked the rest of his family in the living room. Harry laughed in disbelief as I said my last peace.

"Now you don't go reporting anyone. You see young Harry here is a very important young man in our world and to be honest our prison makes your excuse of punishment look like disapproving wag of the finger. Now technically speaking I have done everyone here a favour, you no longer have to look after him during the holidays and no longer have anything to do with magic," I added.

So with that out of the way I took Harry to meet Rose. They were both a little stunned and a little shy and uncertain so I gave Rose the birdcage.

"Go and help him pack, get to know each other and if you want anything let me know. That includes you Harry you are part of the family after all," I said.


End file.
